Krishnamurti's Message No

Adyar Pamphlets Krishnamurti's Message No. 134 Krishnamurti's Message by C. Jinarajadasa These addresses were delivered in March 1928 Published in 1930 Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Chennai [Madras] India The Theosophist Office, Adyar, Madras. India [Page 1] JUST now the work of Krishnamurti naturally affects all Theosophists very closely. We need not for the moment enquire what the attitude of the world in general will be, but what does concern us as Theosophists is what should be our attitude. Now, our attitude must necessarily be different from the attitude of those who are not Theosophists, because, as Theosophists, we are committed to certain definite conceptions. Of these, the principal one is that everything is working under the direction of a Great Hierarchy. They supervise all evolution, and in the main that supervision deals with the two aspects of life and form. It is under Their direction that various races appear one after another, as also all the great religions. It is obvious from our standpoint — that of those who accept the direction of the Hierarchy — that [Page 2] there is nothing final in all these manifestations of life and form. They come one after another according to a plan. It is obvious that each aspect of life and form appears only so as to release new attributes, both in each soul and in the collective life of humanity. All the time, then, each new race releases new possibilities of consciousness; and each new religion equally releases new possibilities of realization. These successive appearances of life and form do not mean that each later appearance supersedes the worth of all previous appearances. That is obvious; when the Sixth Root Race comes with its particular message, that will not mean that the work of all previous races is annulled. Looking similarly at the problem of religion, when the Bodhisattva either comes Himself or sends His messengers of religion, the fundamental principle behind His action is to release certain new attributes in the ego of man and in humanity. While that work of His is being done, there are two aspects of it which we can note. The first is to establish in the world certain truths which would not have been understood in previous dispensations. Because, after all, humanity evolves, and with each successive unfoldment it is possible to give a fuller revelation. Each religion, each wave of influence from Him, brings certain new truths into manifestation, so far as humanity is concerned. The second aspect of His work is that, when He starts [Page 3] an impulse, it is also intended to enrol a new type of worker. There exist always various types of workers dormant in humanity, and they must be awakened and gathered. New bodies of workers must be gathered, and so each religious impulse has the effect of calling out from among humanity a type of worker with a particular quality of work which did not exist before. In this work which is ever being done by the Bodhisattva, it is obvious that He does not necessarily put an end to existing dispensations when He sends a new one. I want to illustrate, by a few examples, that Page 1 Adyar Pamphlets Krishnamurti's Message No. 134 when one particular impulse is established, it does not annul, negate or nullify anything which has gone before which contains truths useful for men. Consider Hinduism, which in its fundamentals was established by the Lord Buddha in His previous manifestations vaguely called Vyasa. It was He who arranged the Hindu sacraments, which link the Devas to Hindu life. But when He came as the Buddha, He totally ignored all that had been established in Hinduism before by Him of a sacramental type. His whole standpoint as the Buddha was not against sacraments as such, as if He denounced them, but rather to strike a new note. It was to call out new possibilities in men, and so He threw open wide the door of Liberation to all. Now, Hinduism had not done that. Hinduism had said, “You must go through various stages. You must be born a Shudra, and then you [Page 4] must be born a Vaishya and then a Kshattriya, and then when you are the Brahmana, possibly then you might come to the door of Liberation”. All that scheme was utterly ignored by the Lord Buddha, when He threw open the door to all. For He emphasized the Way within. Ceremonies were performed on all sides of Him, but He did not denounce them, though He did declare that relying upon them as essential to spirituality was a fetter. There often was, in His remarks on Hindu worship, a smile of amusement now and then at the way that people became absorbed in those things, to the exclusion of the true inner vision of truth. All the while, He emphasized that His Way was by purification of the heart and the mind, irrespective of a man's outer grade in life, irrespective of high caste or low caste, irrespective of outer culture. By purification, man can go straight to the entrance of the Path. At that time, who accepted Him ? Not all. Because already Hinduism was existing with all its magnificent structure. But a certain number of Hindus did accept Him, and they enrolled themselves as the followers of the new Teacher. When He went about, people did not treat Him with any unusual reverence; they addressed Him often as “Gautama”. People would come and say, “O Gautama”: they did not say, “O Lord, O Savior”. They accepted Him as another of the teachers of the time. A certain number, however, pledged [Page 5] themselves to follow Him. Of those who so accepted Him, not all determined to tread at once the direct road which the Lord Buddha offered. Many became His adherents, but not all of them joined Him as His yellow-robed disciples. Only a few felt capable of “entering on the Path” immediately. I should also here mention how, in the first sermon of the Lord Buddha, where He lays down His main teaching as to the direct road, only one Path is mentioned. Later on, He gives teaching as to two Paths, the one for the few, His Sangha or Disciples, and the other for the many. The many must go slowly through the path of ordinary moralities, purifying themselves gradually; but the few can at once renounce the world to seek Nirvana. In the first sermon, it is as if He took for granted that everyone who listened could put on the yellow robe of the spiritual aspirant who flies straight to the goal. It is later, as the Buddha developed for men the full possibilities of His truth, that He made clear that it is not obligatory on all men then and there to enter on the direct path. That is the ideal for all; it is to make them all enter it, that the Buddhas come one after another. If all could enter at once, the work of one Buddha would be sufficient. But all cannot so enter, and therefore the Buddhas come one after another, to help men at each successive stage.[Page 6] As the Lord Buddha gave His teaching, He also called for a band of workers, and a certain number gathered round Him. They went forth to carry the particular new impulse which He gave to the world. That did not mean that the older impulses of Hinduism, and of Jainism, or of the other religions, had ceased to operate. Only, a new type of worker was required, for a new impulse, and He sent out the call. Page 2 Adyar Pamphlets Krishnamurti's Message No. 134 Some three centuries later, there came His successor, Shri Krishna. Then a completely new type of teaching was given, which the Hindu consciousness had not known before. This was the truth as to Bhakti, the realization of blessedness through devotion to God as Shri Krishna. And this new teaching was rather revolutionary. It seemed in a way to sweep aside all the hierarchies of the Devas and the priests and their ceremonies, and the caste system too, for all could be saved by Bhakti. Once again a teaching was given to all, for Shri Krshna said: “All who have faith in Me shall come to liberation through Me”. There was also another teaching which was rather novel to the Hindu mind, though we accept it today with wonderful philosophical eagerness; it was the teaching that, if a man would live doing his work with no thought of fruit or reward, the Karma of his action would not return to him, but would go, as it were, to the Karma of God. The Karma-less-ness which is implied in the teaching of the [Page 7] Gita was indeed a novel and revolutionary idea at the time. Now, when Shri Krishna came and gave the message of devotion, Buddhism had hardly come to its climax in India as a religious influence. Are we to presume that the work of Buddhism was over, because another phase of the Bodhi or the Wisdom was given ? The truth is that, as three centuries before, the coming of Shri Krishna meant a call for a new band of workers. We know very little historically of what was done through that particular band of workers; but always, where there is a new message given, it implies also the gathering together of groups of people who are going to be trained to carry on a particular work, and in a new way.

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